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That thing is awesome!! I think I might try submitting videos now to VF. I can't believe you got that thing for free... (oh wait, that was the discount prize...) Still... awesome to get a deal on such a nice kite. Enjoy!! Anyway, Can't wait to see the wasted bandwidth. Shane

« Last Edit: July 11, 2011, 10:30 AM by Shane »

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"Once you have flown, you will walk with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you long to return." Leonardo Da Vinci

It is one of the nicest kites I've flown, and I can't wait to get to know it better.

Glad you're liking it. After extolling the virtues of the Seven on CK, I'd have felt a bit guilty if you didn't. Not seen a vid from you in a while, so it would be good to see one of the Seven once you're fully tuned in.

Well, not that it's anything like the video above... but I put together a short video of the first flight. The video posted above is one of the strongest reasons why I felt that I needed to fly the Seven, it looks like it tricks like the Benson Gemini when you know what you're doing. The Seven is like the Gemini in the respect that it likes to keep tricking, and isn't much for the flying in between. I had hoped for a better mix of both, but it's just something for me to get used to.

Now, I only got a couple of hours on the kite, so my impressions are limitted. The Seven is not a kite for you if you like to cut sharp corners or pull a tight spin turn. It is a very tricky, pitchy kite, though. It rolls up in the blink of an eye, with a flick of the wrist. The inputs required to get the kite to do just about anything are much smaller than I'm used to, I spent my time toning down my inputs as best as I could. It's going to take a lot of hours to learn to fly with small inputs. The only strange thing the kite does is bounce alot on the pitch axis when you make transitions, but that is really just a matter of me learning to smooth and minimize my inputs, and to catch better at the end of a trick... or to just keep flowing into the next trick.The build of the kite is as good as any I've seen (Benson, Blue Moon, Skyburner), it's got an interesting leading edge design that allows the kite to fold very short. My kite came with no weight, but really doesn't seem to need it. Worth mentioning... the Vector lineset. Because I was flying for the camera, I was stuck on one side of the wind window. With me flying, that leads to line wraps. Well, by the time the lines started to bind, and I decided to take a minute to unwind them... I counted 58 wraps to get them straight again ! The only problem with them is that I can't see them very well in the air for some reason. I figured the orangey color would stand out better.Because SKD is making so few kites and there's a long waiting list (I ordered it in March) to have a kite built, I feel very lucky to have gotten this kite, and plan on enjoying & learning from it for a long time.

The Seven is like the Gemini in the respect that it likes to keep tricking, and isn't much for the flying in between. I had hoped for a better mix of both, but it's just something for me to get used to.

Now, I only got a couple of hours on the kite, so my impressions are limited. The Seven is not a kite for you if you like to cut sharp corners or pull a tight spin turn. It is a very tricky, pitchy kite, though. It rolls up in the blink of an eye, with a flick of the wrist. The inputs required to get the kite to do just about anything are much smaller than I'm used to, I spent my time toning down my inputs as best as I could. It's going to take a lot of hours to learn to fly with small inputs. The only strange thing the kite does is bounce a lot on the pitch axis when you make transitions, but that is really just a matter of me learning to smooth and minimize my inputs, and to catch better at the end of a trick... or to just keep flowing into the next trick.

Think I may have mentioned its lack of precision on CK. The Seven is definitely more trick focussed than polyvalent.

The vid looks good for a first fly, especially if you are not used to a small input kite.

You'll soon get used to the smaller inputs and the adjustments needed to catch the kite following the pitch moves.

I flew a seven exclusively for about a year and as a flyer I made good progress on it... the only frustrations I had were the same as yours, a tendency to over steer and fairly poor straight lines. It will never fly like a nirvana, but I did get used to it and with practice it will cut square corner and fly some straight lines.... it was never made with figures in mind, it's a kite to have fun with if you like pitched based stuff (even in the higher end of the wind range), wrapped tricks and hard two point landings then you will like the seven

I've never seen a Seven in person, but always liked the Seven in the pics, now, after watching your vid and reading your review I feel an urgency to order one . But I guess it'll have to wait a little more time, for now, I'm waiting for my new Light Saber that Will shipped a week ago. According to your description, the Seven is more or less the kind of trick-oriented kite the Saber II is, in other words: completely fun!

BTW the UL version of this kite is quite a performer also. With some of the mass of such a large kite taken out, yet a lot of stiffness still kept in. It tricks quite well for a UL.

At least that is the impression I got during my 45 minutes or so on the kite several months back.

I knew I should've ordered the UL at the same time. The winds in this video were right around 5mph, but I like to fly my kites right at the bottom of their wind range. I flew the kite for a few minutes yesterday in an uneven inland wind, and found in the higher wind, that the kite can cut corners and hold a straight line. That's about the only thing that I found that was good about flying it in 5-15mph wind that was shifting +/- 90 degrees. It's not the kite for that kind of wind.

I've never seen a Seven in person, but always liked the Seven in the pics, now, after watching your vid and reading your review I feel an urgency to order one . But I guess it'll have to wait a little more time, for now, I'm waiting for my new Light Saber that Will shipped a week ago. According to your description, the Seven is more or less the kind of trick-oriented kite the Saber II is, in other words: completely fun!

Yes, the Seven is a really fun kite. I couldn't stop smiling when I was flying it. The only thing that really frustrated me is the big turning radius, it took forever to get the 58 wraps out of those lines ! I have to say that I'm surprised, I didn't expect the kite to be as tricky as it is...

I flew a seven exclusively for about a year and as a flyer I made good progress on it... the only frustrations I had were the same as yours, a tendency to over steer and fairly poor straight lines. It will never fly like a nirvana, but I did get used to it and with practice it will cut square corner and fly some straight lines.... it was never made with figures in mind, it's a kite to have fun with if you like pitched based stuff (even in the higher end of the wind range), wrapped tricks and hard two point landings then you will like the seven

Hi Yan,I think your descriptions of the kites on CK got me hooked on the idea that I needed one. THe design always appealed to me, but the things you guys said about it got it stuck in my mind that I needed to fly this kite. I think I may have also seen a video of you or someone else flying your Seven a while back, too. I don't think it was the one that Ace posted above, though.

The Seven is like the Gemini in the respect that it likes to keep tricking, and isn't much for the flying in between. I had hoped for a better mix of both, but it's just something for me to get used to.

Now, I only got a couple of hours on the kite, so my impressions are limited. The Seven is not a kite for you if you like to cut sharp corners or pull a tight spin turn. It is a very tricky, pitchy kite, though. It rolls up in the blink of an eye, with a flick of the wrist. The inputs required to get the kite to do just about anything are much smaller than I'm used to, I spent my time toning down my inputs as best as I could. It's going to take a lot of hours to learn to fly with small inputs. The only strange thing the kite does is bounce a lot on the pitch axis when you make transitions, but that is really just a matter of me learning to smooth and minimize my inputs, and to catch better at the end of a trick... or to just keep flowing into the next trick.

Think I may have mentioned its lack of precision on CK. The Seven is definitely more trick focussed than polyvalent.

The vid looks good for a first fly, especially if you are not used to a small input kite.

You'll soon get used to the smaller inputs and the adjustments needed to catch the kite following the pitch moves.

Hey Jon,It's a great kite and I plan on flying the wings off of it. I'm sure it's going to help me learn some new tricks, I've all ready done some stuff on it that was unintentional, but looked pretty cool...

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